Brazil,
Colombia, and Venezuela entered the industry; and it held its supremacy
in the world's trade for many years before the younger American
producing countries were able to surpass its annual output. The first
attempt to introduce the plant into Java took place in 1696, the
seedlings being brought from Malabar in India and planted at Kadawoeng,
near Batavia. Earthquake and flood soon destroyed the plants; and in
1699 Henricus Zwaardecroon brought the second lot of seedlings from
Malabar. These became the progenitors of all the _arabica_ coffees of
the Dutch East Indies. The industry grew, and in 1711 the first Java
coffee was sold at public auction in Amsterdam. Exports amounted to
116,587 pounds in 1720; and in 1724 the Amsterdam market sold 1,396,486
pounds of coffee from Java.

From the early part of the nineteenth century up to 1905, cultivation
was carried on under a Dutch government monopoly--excepting for the
five years, 1811-16, when the British had control of the island. The
government monopoly was first established when Marshal Daendels, acting
for the crown of Holland, took control of the islands from the
Netherlands East India Company. Before that time, the princes of
Preanger had raised all the coffee under the provisions of a treaty made
in the middle of the eighteenth century, by which they paid an annual
tribute in coffee to the company for the privilege of retaining their
land revenues. When the Dutch government recovered the islands from the
British, the plantations, which had been permitted to go to ruin, were
put in order again, and the government system re-established.

[Illustration: A HEAVY FRUITING OF COFFEA ROBUSTA IN JAVA]

A modification of the first monopoly plan of the government was put into
effect later in the regime of Governor Van den Bosch, and was maintained
until into the twentieth century. Under the Daendels plan, each native
family was required to keep 1000 coffee trees in bearing on village
lands, and to give to the government two-fifths of the crop, delivered
cleaned and sorted, at the government store. The natives retained the
other three-fifths. Under the Van den Bosch system, each family was
required to raise and care for 650 trees and to deliver the crop cleaned
and sorted to the government stores at a fixed price. The government
then sold the coffee at public auctions in Batavia, Padang, Amsterdam,
or Rotterdam.

This method of fostering the new industry resulted in